Narrative:

We received the aircraft from maintenance this morning and performed normal preflight duties. No defects were noted and we notified maintenance personnel we were ready to be towed out of the hangar. We performed a normal run up; taxied to the terminal; performed paperwork duties and boarded the aircraft. We took off and the flight proceeded normally and was uneventful. Upon de-planing our passengers; a few of them mentioned that a part of the right engine cowling was showing a gap. I dismissed this as there are normal gaps between engine cowlings on these 20+ year old airplanes and maintenance would just tell us they were within parameters anyway. [Then] I walked around out of curiosity to the other side of the aircraft after I had deplaned the passengers. Upon reaching the right side of the aircraft; I noticed the entire top engine cowling aft of the propeller and above the exhaust stacks to be hanging on only by three safety wires. The inboard aft safety wire had failed. The safety wires were still indicating that the cam locks were locked and that the cowling should still be attached but this was not the case. The top of the cowling had been ground down by the propeller spinner. I notified the captain and maintenance (maintenance personnel were already present) and the captain called maintenance and entered the discrepancy into the aircraft logbook. Upon preflight of the aircraft earlier that morning; all safety wires were attached and pointing in the correct direction of the 'lock' arrows. As pilots; that's all we have to go on in knowing that each cowling is secured. Maintenance is always scrambling to finish airplanes; as they aren't allotted the appropriate amount of time to finish two details in one evening so I can see how one small oversight could result in this event occurring.nothing the pilot could have done would have prevented this. Ensure quality assurance is being carried out at all maintenance facilities. Hold individuals accountable. Reduce the workload for maintenance personnel allowing them to complete their tasks all the way; and not rush everything. So many times we've taken airplanes out of maintenance with MEL'ed items because they didn't have time to fix them. This shouldn't happen.

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Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: BE1900 crew discovers the right top engine cowling hanging by safety wires upon arrival at the gate. The aircraft had been retrieved from the maintenance hangar prior to the flight.

Narrative: We received the aircraft from maintenance this morning and performed normal preflight duties. No defects were noted and we notified Maintenance personnel we were ready to be towed out of the hangar. We performed a normal run up; taxied to the terminal; performed paperwork duties and boarded the aircraft. We took off and the flight proceeded normally and was uneventful. Upon de-planing our passengers; a few of them mentioned that a part of the right engine cowling was showing a gap. I dismissed this as there are normal gaps between engine cowlings on these 20+ year old airplanes and Maintenance would just tell us they were within parameters anyway. [Then] I walked around out of curiosity to the other side of the aircraft after I had deplaned the passengers. Upon reaching the right side of the aircraft; I noticed the entire top engine cowling aft of the propeller and above the exhaust stacks to be hanging on only by three safety wires. The inboard aft safety wire had failed. The safety wires were still indicating that the cam locks were locked and that the cowling should still be attached but this was not the case. The top of the cowling had been ground down by the propeller spinner. I notified the Captain and Maintenance (Maintenance personnel were already present) and the Captain called Maintenance and entered the discrepancy into the aircraft logbook. Upon preflight of the aircraft earlier that morning; all safety wires were attached and pointing in the correct direction of the 'LOCK' Arrows. As pilots; that's all we have to go on in knowing that each cowling is secured. Maintenance is always scrambling to finish airplanes; as they aren't allotted the appropriate amount of time to finish two details in one evening so I can see how one small oversight could result in this event occurring.Nothing the pilot could have done would have prevented this. Ensure quality assurance is being carried out at all maintenance facilities. Hold individuals accountable. Reduce the workload for Maintenance personnel allowing them to complete their tasks all the way; and not rush everything. So many times we've taken airplanes out of maintenance with MEL'ed items because they didn't have time to fix them. This shouldn't happen.

Data retrieved from NASA's ASRS site as of April 2012 and automatically converted to unabbreviated mixed upper/lowercase text. This report is for informational purposes with no guarantee of accuracy. See NASA's ASRS site for official report.